the contractors. in afghanistan it's reported that human rights violations and even killings are committed by security firms on a regular basis to an extent set to undermine call the show horses counterinsurgency efforts they'll start firing at anything that moves injure or kill innocent afghans and they'll destroy property we're getting fairly consistent complaints about them everybody knows somebody who's been shot by the contract is. the lack of accountability has forced the united nations working group on mercenaries to push for specific international measures to regulate their activities especially now as u.s. military forces withdraw from iraq and afghanistan the number of contractors is set to grow dramatically you know as. so many military and security functions to these security companies they are not regulated

in that they are not controlled and this is were we are extremely concerned that what we are calling is for relation to the national at the international level so that. companies are accountable but washington is reluctant to lead an international body regulate their activities saying it will find ways to hold contractors accountable but so far the u.s. justice system has largely failed to do so for seeing around the world cases of kidnapping rape murder. and we see very very only very rare cases in which there's actually a criminal investigation or prosecution or sing out of. what experts say further privatization of war is convenient for the american government because among other reasons it doesn't have to justify the deaths of troops at home the president whoever the president may be can get us involved in conflicts only using uniform

forces to do the official fighting and then thousands and thousands of contractors to do the unofficial fighting that's under the radar screen that isn't covered by the media now here is a quote we cannot win a fight for hearts and minds when we outsource critical missions took on accountable contractors and of quote that's what senator obama said before he became president but apparently as a president now he thinks differently. with the contractors role in america's wars bound to increase and with the victims of their crime still begging for justice i'm going to check out reporting from washington our team. well i mean time the mayor of the volatile city of kandahar has been assassinated after a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden in his turban it's the latest in a series of killings targeting the country's top officials earlier this month president karzai the half brother and his senior aide were gunned down in separate attacks to talk more on this we're going to be joined by a former afghan m.p.

. i thank you for joining us today the attacks come as nato troops begin to withdraw from afghanistan is the timing of the attack significant do you think. naturally it. while it's normal to see the type of trend in the summer but the. transfer of security as well as apologies to the afghan forces and these these incidents are making one thing very vividly and visible and that is how does this transition take hold and whether the afghan security forces and the afghan responsible units would be ready to take over this this is a very very different war and i don't think we can define a definitive line from which one can define success but nevertheless the timing is very very important as you say the timing is very important here but

perhaps you think nato should reconsider pulling out with obvious violence on the rise. i think there's no guarantee that this trend of nato transfer will continue smoothly i i can see. reversals a time in in the future and perhaps certain provinces are so volatile and so critical that they may have to delays some of their transfers i don't think this will continue on as scheduled because we should not operate on schedule as we should operate on realities on the ground here and those in washington and in europe should be secondary. should take a second place to reality and results on the ground but as we were just reporting the gradual u.s. military pullout is seeing

a swap with private contractors taking the place of troops it might seem to some of the u.s. wants to keep up permanent under the radar presence in afghanistan almost a clandestine long term agenda. why i think this is a very complicated slippery slope so to speak first of all a war in itself is an ugly enough but to reduce vigilanteism into war it makes it even more dangerous especially in foreign lands it will not be good for any country who wants to stay as a strategic ally of another country and then keep private armies in that country i don't think this will bode well our or have a good pact on the afghan impression when when you talk about strategic alliance with the united states i think it should be an alliance based on the regular. accountable presence of our allies troops in our country not vigilantes and under the ground and under the radar contract it's interesting how you say that what

might be the afghan impression with these private contractors because allegations that these mercenaries abused human rights and kill local police people in iraq and afghanistan the accusations have been around for years with such a reputation do you think locals could find themselves gravitating towards the taliban. one of the one of the problems that we have had in the past ten years it hasn't been the strength of the taliban that has gravitated to the equation towards them but it has been the weakness and the ill fated decision making process both in afghanistan and elsewhere regarding up on the stand so i think it's very important that we are very careful and measured with what we do because the civilian population of population is ignored both by war and by civilian reconstruction and that's what counts but unfortunately priorities every time

there's a war is where priorities during wars are on success not on civilian people who are really the. main thing that we should pay attention to if i may jump in here briefly i do apologize we are running low on time but you worked in the afghan government is president karzai is he strong enough to oppose the taliban on his own does influence and power stretch wide enough in the country do you think. no no government whether it's a are on the other government is capable of fighting the taliban alone because it's not just the taliban it's the region you're talking about pakistan you talk about iran it's it's the drug mafia it's their war mafia in the region and it's a complicated sophisticated puzzle so mr karzai government and the present the afghan institutions are not capable of taking on this thing if that is going on right now all right. thank you very much.

on the way as intelligence services says there's no evidence that anders breivik is connected to far right extremists in norway or elsewhere the thirty two year old who admits killing seventy six people last friday claims he was part of why the mission his lawyer insists that breivik is insane and didn't know what he was doing but as artie's lorimer reports his immigration message is one that has chilling chilling rather echoes all across europe. and ethnic hatred that led to the slaughter of scores of innocent young people to prevent the massacre to which he freely admits was a justified strike against the political left for supporting open borders and multiculturalism and even though the staunchest of hardliners condemned brave fix horrific actions anti immigration sentiment is growing across europe other groups

express their condolences and then are quick and separate themselves from are also quick to lay blame left wing politicians which. are responsible because they allowed immigration happen and effectively pushed the sky to the edge it's a cry that many feel is not being heard by european governments as people show their discontent voting increasingly for previously marginal anti immigration parties and joining street movements like the anti islamic english defense league. we'll have groups who are satisfied and we will have other groups who see that the governments are not doing enough discussing the issues enough. in this going forward in the future i think this nor their attacks it will bring this topic into the center of the attention again and they will force. officials as well as public to focus on these issues again the move towards nationalism is pound european as

well as the b.n.p. making. gains in the u.k. holland's controversial good builders now leads the country's third largest political party running on an anti islam platform nationalists the truth in this redrew the political landscape this year when they won nearly twenty percent of the vote the danish people's party has also embrace donte immigration policies successfully lobbying for denmark to close its previously open borders with germany and sweden there's grassroots support for brave it too disturbingly depicted on the internet by some extremists as a hero three thousand people voted for his video manifesto on you tube and his group knights templar became a popular search topic on google i'm quite concerned that there are a lot of individuals. writing in this manifesto will resonate with and so on i'm very concerned that you will see other people copycatting these types

of attacks in the coming months or coming years politicians including germany's angela merkel and britain's david cameron have already said multiculturalism has failed now the leaders of western europe have to stop their disenfranchised cities becoming a breeding ground for far right. who lit the fuse and those brave it claims to have been involved with the english defense league which pledges to protect england from what it calls a wave of the case said the a.d.l. denies that they but political analysts are saying if the attacks in norway don't prompt an honest appraisal of the issues surrounding immigration that could further frustrate the european public and create more space for potentially violent far right groups to expanded all over europe and r.t. london. with our shortly we report on faith. fida fueling

a friendship we are in kiev where church leaders from the former soviet states are gathered together to mark ancient russia's adoption of christianity. and where money grows on trees dodgy disaster cleanup firms in russia's forests who are making cash among the ash. britain are now officially recognizes libya's rebels as the legitimate government and as expelled colonel gadhafi has diplomats is also on a freezing one hundred fifty million dollars of libyan oil assets to help fund at the rebels tripoli insists it will not enter peace talks to end the four months long civil war until nato stops its airstrikes and un talks with the rebels in benghazi also make little progress towards a cease fire professor mark almond from oxford university things there won't be the dramatic collapse of cafes regime which nato continues to expect. traditionally

britain has recognized governments not on the basis of what we like them or what will they control the territory of the state colonel gadhafi may have lost control of parts of libya but clearly the rebels don't control it so this was a study in a new precedent rather than just what the other problem is that the rebels are on the ground seem to stall that even with the nato bombing raids and if you remember when this started more than four months ago we were told it would be a matter of weeks rather months and so i suspect really what we have paid the british warship which is doing this really having a symbolic act to try to show that somehow or other we're still in charge of the situation in the situation is increasingly unpredictable the real problem here is with us they have a lucky strike because they've tried several times i think you can protect congo it's reading by bombing places where they thought the chances are that the won't be a dramatic collapse of his regime survived the first shock impact and so now the question is will the rebels hope sufficient resources to push on through the

transport. it seems to be difficult to avoid the conclusion that the crisis and abuse in certain great deal of the toil and one of the problems has been that the rebels thought that very quickly they would get whole group of all our search. term all exports into money. before the tour for if they feel they need money to maintain their forces because a they need money for the social services such as well but also we need money limited by support from other trade one subterranean aspect of this conflict is feed side pays for most nights we have a lot about kernel that are. involved look for the rebels right in return for cash and also. and this is one of the reasons why going to give up is also. better motivated maybe better paid about it should be able to resist rather more effectively comparison london expected decision to. kick out the boxes diplomats in london masks and deep embarrassment and indeed

a strategic crisis for the nato countries the barber. here with r.t. live from moscow in a few minutes a corrina say with a business but for now some other international news headlines for you the white house is threatening that president obama could veto the republican debt limit plan speaker john boehner wants to cut public spending and raise the limit congress has less than one week to raise the country's multi-trillion dollar debt ceiling if it wants to avoid a potentially devastating default obama blames republicans for stalling and refusing to accept a balanced approach. the international community has condemned because of those decision to send troops to the serb populated north saying it's stoking ethnic tension one a policeman has died in clashes with local serbs who were mounting a road block as part of across the board a trade embargo around six hundred thousand ethnic serbs that live in the area but refused to recognize cause of orthorexic after it unilaterally declared independence from serbia in two thousand and eight. religious leaders from post

soviet nations are uniting in ukraine to celebrate the christianize ation of ancient russia ukraine's capital kiev used to be the center of the ancient state when it turned to orthodoxy more than a thousand years ago. he is following the colorful festivities. the head of the russian orthodox church bought them out of the real has a right to the ukrainian capital kiev to take part in the celebrations along with his counterpart from georgia and the head of the russian orthodox church in ukraine . it's been exactly one thousand and twenty three years since this part of the world adopted orthodox christianity now when. arrived at the solemn liturgy in front of the. monument. dedicated to the baptism to the adoption of christianity in this part of the world he was greeted by tens of thousands of people who were chanting that. is the real. clearly this shows that

the the attitude towards the russia ukraine is still very warm and he is being greeted here with much respect lately kiev has been named as one of the single capitals of the russian orthodox church along with moscow and st petersburg it is interesting because of course capital of a sovereign state of ukraine and this means that the russian orthodox church goes beyond the borders to unite the clergy on the space it is a large scale celebration which is being held in the capitals of ukraine belarus and russia key of minsk and moscow wender stand at the celebration events will be happening within the next couple of days with concerts large concerts culminating the festivities in the three capitals. reporting right while you can always i had to come for more on the news you need all around the clock what if you right now

investigates the rise in suicides in tsunami japan as thousands find it too much to cope with the aftermath of the disaster. and the russian manhunt for husbands with women outnumbering men by millions who report on an unusual matrimony . rent a gent. rushes green a forest seeing it some people carve out a shady career illegal logging is growing as a boy explains the exploitation begins when natural disaster. fire has long had a reputation of a bad master but in russia these days it's increasingly being used as a good servant with flames terrorizing the country's forest every summer some unscrupulous intrapreneur as have come to use it as a smokescreen for illegal logging the problem reached such proportions that even the government has realized the chips are down in some regions considered at risk

of heavy forest fires illegal logging is thriving they cut down more than through oist than the area is set ablaze to cover their crime nobody can determine how much logging was sanctioned and how much was actually cut the. fires hurricanes flooding come what may illegal loggers are using all sorts of natural disasters to cover their tracks. these woods near st petersburg fallon the path of a major twister last year it uprooted thousands of hectares of mature for as many more after wards by swindlers like these ones who managed to secure a permit for the hurricane cleanup but missed that it got a permit that allows them to take away three truckloads of debris a job that could be done in a few days but there permit is valid for three weeks i'm sure you can usually get the wrist. they say money doesn't grow on trees but russia which possesses about

one fifth of the world's forest resources defies the old wisdom while the government contends that the illegal logging khans for just a few percent of all timber production environment activists say the scale of the problem is much greater if you heard we believe that twenty to twenty five percent of all logging in russia is carried out illegally the figure is higher than a decade ago and it's still rising on a par with the amazon rain forest the vast siberian greenery is often referred to as the lungs of the planet at close examination though it's cards all over the place most of the illegal siberian timber goes to china and while the locals already see the impact of deforestation on their own lives they see their only other option would be far worse. you know it's illegal what you're doing. i know it's illegal but there are no other jobs here. the government officials who

are to turn to for comment say the state is doing everything it can to combat illegal logging new legislation has just come into force the number of forest rangers will be increased it in the meantime the chiefs are still flowing where they may according to x. powers if the states in ability to see the wood for the trees that is one of the main reasons why illegal logging in russia is so widespread and why it is so prone to any sort of punitive action while the federal authorities may condemn the practice all they want the current economic and regulatory environment ultimately makes one daft thing chopping of trees farm a locomotive and easy to carry out then doing it the legal way a kind of artsy. you know while environmentalist battle to keep russian trees safe for all to talk to the american astronauts who inspired the movement to protect the entire earth with one very special picture that's coming your way after kareena

gives us the latest business. hello and welcome to our business report good to have you with me russia's leading gold producer point is gold has been taken over by its london based subsidiary gold then you company under the name of point is called international started trading on the london stock exchange on wednesday miners loved the from x. capital says the unusual reverse takeover could impact the new group's share value this is a reverse takeover. gold which is a limited company has gone and bought out his parents which is fairly unusual and it looks like he wants to continue doing that as a process to expand going forward this kind of reverse takeover can dampen shareholder value in the in the near term and shareholder performance as well and having looked at the recent performance of. gold there has been the performances royals fairly considerably despite the price of gold increasing on the upside.

russia is planning to put fifty percent of its oil. up for sale next year it could become the biggest privatization deal in the nation's history on the current market conditions this stake is valued at fourteen billion dollars government says it is also weighing plans to sell its entire stake of seventy five percent by two thousand and seventeen and also plans to divest of its holdings and diamond producer and bt bag raising around thirty six billion dollars. now take a look at the markets oil is in the red light sweet is losing about eighty cents this hour and bread is down over half a dollar prices remain under pressure as a result of washington running over u.s. debt ceiling. now let's have a look at some of the markets even e.u. eyes lower with washington's debt problems affecting investor confidence and stocks in london down that by lloyds banking group pleas and world bank of scotland after

goldman sachs downgraded the european banking sector shares of insurers are also down i've even dropped two percent at all group one percent illegal in general to top one percent while. here in russia markets are in positive territory with the odd he has a gambling almost half a percent this hour investors are cautious avoiding wristy moves ahead of economic reports and critical decision making and leave us. russia they have plenty of oil but that doesn't show up the petrol pumps motorists are having to contend with shortages and rising prices the problems have been put down to high tech stuti have a greater profitability of selling fuel abroad now new rules on the quality of the having an impact the government is even considering extending production of low grade class to petrol until december two thousand and twelve the russian gasoline union says incentives for refiners to upgrade production. are curiously new for

your work so there are a few stimuli being implemented at the moon. currently excise duties are varied the higher the level of quality the lower the duty the difference isn't big around three hundred to four hundred roubles according to the class now there is talk of increasing this difference to two thousand or three thousand roubles plus it's fair to wards those who have already invested in upgrading their production which will give them further stimulus for further development. that's the business update for now i'll be back with more in forty five minutes time. so.

wealthy british scientists on. the front of the. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our.

welcome back you're with. the. notorious american security. the government. despite claims of atrocities against innocent people the u.s. using. foreign missions. norwegian intelligence.

and europe's growing nationalistic fears of. officially recognizing in libya as the country's legitimate leader. the diplomatic offensive. one hundred fifty million dollars of libyan oil assets to help fund. the first one of the first up close and personal with the moon. bill. which inspired people to protect the planet as we discover. i understand you very much for being with us today it's

a great pleasure and an honor nice to be with you soldiers all right so apollo eight commander frank berman and common command module pilot jim lovell had flown more hours than any other often not where they tap on you well i was the rookie. but it turns out that none of us had ridden on the saturn five so we were all right rookies for saturn five and we were all rookies for a trip away from the earth with a lot of screaming and shouting during the six and a half days no not screaming and shouting you didn't have to in a spacecraft to reach out our jobs level was basically the navigator and i was the systems engineer and copilot much of the shot actually frank borman no i think it's been. definitely proven that i took the shot but i think find more might have taken the first one but unfortunately he didn't use color film and didn't use a long lens so i.